~~~Eve~~~

Eve stopped atop the wall and glared from behind her full-faced helmet. "I'm going out, Declan. Maybe try not throwing fireballs at me this time?"

"Come on, Eve. How was I supposed to know you blacked out your armor?" The man grinned, unabashed. "Besides, it's not like I actually hurt you."

"It still gets hot in here!" she growled. The under armour was far too good at soaking up sweat and then stinking to high hell all day.

He winked at her. "I bet it's hot in..."

Eve punched him in the stomach, and the servos in her armor added a little something extra to the strike. Not too much, but enough to send the message. Enough to send him flying off the wall and out into the darkness beyond. Well, mostly darkness. The wizards were doing something to the walls, and the light of their efforts stretched out, illuminating the night almost to the treeline.

She jumped off after Declan and didn't even need the extra power from her armor to absorb the landing. Stanley and his fucking bullshit. She was strong! All of them were strong! They'd gone through that swarm like it was nothing!

"I'm going to become a god," he'd said. "I want you to do the same," he'd said! "You're too weak," he'd fucking said! Too weak because they weren't gods. Because, of course, Stanley wanted to be a fucking god!

Whatever that actually meant... Honestly, it sounded like yet another step on his journey into batshit insanity, aside from one slight issue—Eve could still remember the echoes of his soul on that day. The day Caffeine went to sleep...

She hadn't seen or felt whatever attacked him. Not directly, only secondhand, through Stanley. She'd felt his rage, she'd felt the power that came with his anger, and she'd also felt the impotent despair that followed. Because whatever he'd seen—or whatever his brother had seen—it had crushed him. Utterly and instantly.

The monster that was Stanley. That lunatic who she couldn't even look at without seeing flashes of... death. The mad freak with more power than everyone else combined. And he had been completely helpless against whatever it was he'd faced.

Obviously, it wasn't a god. There was no such thing. But maybe a higher grade? The only question was, how much higher, and also, what did that mean for the rest of them? For her brother? Could something like that come here?

Stanley didn't know, or claimed he didn't...

Eve contemplated those miserable thoughts while she stomped through the night toward the man himself. She didn't have to worry that he may have flown off somewhere; she could feel him out there in the dark, and he was getting worse.

His soul was a steady mix between anger, fear, and more of that sickening despair, but even as she trudged closer, it went quiet. Not completely silent, but almost.

It was his soul shield.

Unfortunately, he couldn't hide from her behind that shield. The others might not feel his soul when he used it, but she always did. Especially when she was listening for it.

No matter how far he flew, he was always there, like a splinter in her mind, a splinter she'd stolen from him—a splinter of his soul.

It was all his fault! That psychotic fucking... Eve stopped walking and shook her head vehemently. She couldn't deny this anymore. She knew what he had done for her. She'd always known... but hadn't wanted to admit it. Worse, she could no longer deny what she had taken from him.

It was too much. Far, far too much. Every point of soul that she had leeched away from him... it was so much more than she had originally thought.

She'd watched those numbers ticking up on her status and had known that it was a good thing. It was power. A power that she foolishly thought she'd understood in the beginning but one that she had only barely dipped her toes into, as she knew all too well now. She'd forced it into her machines and weapons the same way she did with the mana. Merely another power supply, though one that let her control things from a greater distance and with more precision.

Yet in reality, it was so much more. Sure, it could be used as a power source, in the crudest and dumbest way possible, but that was only touching upon the surface of it.

Soul was... truth. It was... purpose. It was the reason. It was the driving force. It was life itself. It was... everything!

Hell, she was pretty sure it was on par with the power she'd seen Stanley using when he tried to kill her. If only she had enough of it, which she didn't, not yet. Though that goal didn't feel very far away... not very far at all. Not after how much soul she'd stolen from him.

She'd been such an asshole... such an idiot! Even after getting that damn angry soul trait, she'd kept going. She'd kept leeching. Like a fucking moron! The trait probably hadn't helped, but she couldn't lay all the blame on it. She'd been angry before. She'd wanted to... hurt him, and so she used it as an excuse.

It hadn't felt like she took very much—only a bit here and there—enough to keep her attribute climbing. He wasn't even around enough for her to take more. Until the day she finally realized exactly what she'd done.

She had infused her soul almost completely into her devices and had been trying to eke out one last scrap for another spider. It had worked.

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It had worked exactly the same as all the rest... but for a mere tenth of what she'd been using before.

Further experiments proved she didn't even need that much. In light of that discovery, she'd gone back over everything she'd thought she knew and found out the terrible reality.

Every machine, every weapon, every servo, every battery, every damn piece of her equipment—all of it only needed the barest touch of her soul to double in efficiency and power. She'd been hamfisted in her early efforts to the point of pure idiocy. She'd even lost a few points by carelessly allowing monsters to eat her machines! What a fucking waste! What a terrible waste of such a precious resource...

Soul: 71(22 Reserved)

Seventy-one soul. There was so much power in the tiny number. More power than in all the rest of her attributes combined. More than she even needed or could use—far more—and the vast majority of it stolen from the very man who'd saved her and her brother's lives. Twice.

Even if he hadn't physically been there the second time, his presence had been. His soul had been there, inspiring Zeke and restoring his faith, even if she hated the very idea of that. His power had sent the undead fleeing, and the trait she'd earned from him trying to kill her had saved her life. Never mind what her death might have done to Zeke...

In return, she'd taken advantage of his wounded soul and leeched away every drop she could get her hands on. She could have taken the skill as the boon it was and used it on the monsters, but no, she had to make him pay for perceived slights! For saving their fucking lives!

It wasn't nearly as effective against the monsters, and she actually had to put her hands physically on them to get any noticeable returns. Even then, she got hundredths of a point at most from each and often none at all.

She hadn't tried directly leeching from any other humans after Walter had caught her trying... that had been awkward as fuck. She hadn't even meant to try but had accidentally left the skill running on her mana drain tower. She didn't know how he'd noticed it so fast or if other people would be the same and hadn't wanted to risk it. Something about Stanley just made him the best possible target—probably the wound. A breach in his soul that let her in. A breach earned in service to all of them...

Stanley said he had over a hundred soul now. He'd told them that his class was Soul Psionic. Knowing what she did now, it might even explain his extremely overpowered... power. A power that might be even stronger if she hadn't leeched so much of it away from him... Which begged the ultimate question, 'How the hell could Stanley possibly not know what she'd done?' And more importantly, 'Why hadn't he killed her for it?'

Eve stopped with one foot on Stanley's front porch, resisting the urge to flee for her life as Stanley's soul abruptly blasted out a fresh wave of anger and fear. How much more powerful would he be if she hadn't done what she did? Would Caffeine still be awake? Was this entire situation her fault? He would kill her for sure if her actions had hurt Caffeine...

She stood there for long moments, frozen in guilt and the subsequent terror it invoked. Worse, she knew he could probably feel her emotions... Was he toying with her? Was he letting her torture herself before he finally confronted and killed her? But then why hadn't he stopped her before? Why let her keep leeching?

Stanley went mostly quiet again, vanishing back behind his shield. Well, mostly vanishing. The splinter was still there. The stinging, itching, digging splinter. Then his shield fell, and she felt his concentration and focus rise through the fear.

Eve finished stepping up onto the porch. Despite her own feelings on the matter, Trudy was right; Stanley shouldn't be alone right now. He'd been... okay this morning, but his mood had only spiraled as the day passed and Caffeine had kept sleeping. But why did she have to be the one to come out here!? Stanley was Nate's hero. Why didn't Nate go hang out with him?

No. I deserve this. After everything she'd done—and not only what she'd done to Stanley—she deserved to suffer. Plus, it would all be worth it if it kept Zeke safe.

She didn't bother to knock. Stanley had to know she was here. Instead, she went inside... or tried to. The door was locked. Seriously!? Of all the petty...

Eve managed not to batter down the door when the burst of anger flashed through her. She was getting better at controlling the rage, especially after she'd shot Stanley at the stadium. Her hand went involuntarily to her throat at the memory. She'd been so sure he would kill her... and then she’d broken down crying like a fucking bitch!

She forced the shameful memory away and sent a thread of metal between the door and jam to flip the lock while the heat slowly faded from her face.

Inside, a trickle of moonlight came through the bedroom window, enough to see Stanley sitting in the dark, cross-legged on the bed with his eyes closed and Caffeine in his lap. The pug's side rose and fell in a steady rhythm as he slept on, oblivious.

Eve sat awkwardly at the crystal table Silas had left behind and watched as pulses of concentration and pain blasted from the still figure on the bed. It wasn't a foreign experience. She'd felt the like plenty when he was working on his soul wound before... while trying to help her increase her own soul... Fuck.

Rather than wallow in her guilt any longer, especially not right in front of him, Eve pulled a laser cannon from her shoulder and got to work herself. If nothing else, Stanley's work ethic was undeniable and something more people should emulate if they wanted to survive this nightmare world.

She peeled the weapon open and pulled out the power supply—a cluster of cores all wired together. Much like the soul, there was a wealth of power jammed into these tiny rocks. The trick was not only accessing it but doing so well enough to get the most power in the shortest time frame. Ideally in nanoseconds, or better yet, microseconds.

There was obviously a limit to the total power in each core, but it might be completely worth it to drain an entire core with each shot. If her idea panned out, then her weaker lasers had the potential to far outperform her railgun in terms of instant destruction.

It was hard to compete with a metal slug traveling thousands of feet per second, but the capacitors she'd created to do that gave her some other ideas for the lasers. She'd started out simply throwing energy through a tube, which barely even fit the definition of a laser. Since then, she'd done better at focusing the energy into a smaller beam and gaining some efficiency, but she could still do more.

Physics had obviously changed dramatically with magic coming into the world, but Eve hoped it hadn't changed too much. If she could excite the energy into higher states, she could create lasers beyond ultraviolet, maybe into x-rays or even gamma... Would radiation do anything to a magically animated skeleton? Did they even have DNA to destroy? Did it matter? That much energy shouldn't care about matter, much less DNA.

"What do you want!?"

Eve froze as she abruptly realized that the darkness was no longer quite so deep, and now a violet light tinted the world. She knew that light and lifted her eyes from her work, hesitantly meeting Stanley's wild gaze. "Nothing! I'm... working? To get stronger like you fu... like you wanted, you..." Fucking narcissist wanna-be god!

Stanley's eyes narrowed. "Why here?"

"I..." Eve floundered before throwing out, "We're a family?"

He laughed humorlessly. "I'd believe that from some of the others, but you? No, what are you really doing here?"

Eve bristled. That wasn't entirely fair. "I care just as much as..."

"Please! You can barely stand to look at me!"

She flinched and looked away before forcing herself to meet his gaze once again. "I..." She swallowed. "I owe you, alright! Is that what you want to hear!? I owe you my life and Zeke's life! Is that reason enough for me to fucking care!?"

It was Stanley's turn to flinch, surprisingly, and then his gaze dropped to Caffeine. "Whatever." He looked back at her. "Is that why you feel guilty all the time?"

Eve froze in the violet light of those blazing eyes. "I..." Her throat closed up. She couldn't do it! She couldn't tell him! He'd kill her for sure, and then... would he still protect Zeke? Would he still care? He'd been betrayed before—or so Nate said. What would he do if he found out about her betrayal? What if he took it out on Zeke!?

She couldn't risk it, so she offered up something else instead, something she had told no one else yet. "I left a spider in the stadium!"

"You..." Stanley blinked, then lifted into the air and roared, "Are you a fucking idiot!?" He didn't stop there. "You put a damn piece of your soul in plain fucking sight, and the undead found it, didn't they!? That was my only fucking lead, and you fucking ruined..."

"I'm not an idiot!" Eve screamed back, standing from her seat to put herself at eye level with this asshole. "You think I don't know about the undead's soul sight, you moron!? I didn't put any soul in the spider, and they didn't fucking find it!"

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His rising rage stuttered to a halt and then shifted into a confusing jumble of emotions. "They... then you have eyes on Sam? Have you seen the undead!? Is it there!? Why didn't you tell me sooner!? Does Nate know about this!? Is that why..."

"It's not there!" Eve shouted quickly at the advancing Stanley. "I haven't seen any undead yet!" No skeletons, at least. Her camera was only a camera. It wouldn't help her detect any of the more human-looking undead.

"Oh." He deflated instantly, drifting back to the bed and closing his eyes as his hands stroked gently over the pug in his lap. Belatedly, he muttered, "Sorry."

"I was going to tell you," Eve said, wincing at the fresh wave of pain in his soul. "If and when I spotted the undead."

Stanley opened his eyes and looked at her. "But you do have eyes on Sam?" Eve nodded. "How long have you been watching her?"

"I went with the wizards. After what she said..." She didn't mention that she'd had to leave a trail of signal relays to get the camera feed all the way back here without using her soul.

"But nothing after all this time?" Stanley closed his eyes at her confirmation and whispered, "Fuck." He shook his head. "No, she has to know how to find them. Or... at the very least she might work as bait to draw out... her friend."

Eve wasn't sure about that, but she had picked up some other tidbits. "Nate's right about going after her at night. She spends pretty much all day away from the stadium but always comes back around sunset and doesn't leave until sunrise."

"She's there now." Stanley stated as much as asked and with an intense feeling that made her hesitate to answer. It didn't matter. His cheating soul abilities betrayed her. "She is!"

"You said you'd wait!" Eve exclaimed when he lifted into the air.

Stanley frowned but settled back down and muttered, "I did... and I will." His gaze slid to Caffeine. "I might need backup, and Caffeine will be awake by then." Except he didn't believe what he was saying. About Caffeine, not about needing backup. Then, with soul-deep pain in his gaze, he spoke in a barely audible whisper. "Right?"

"Of course!" Eve blurted, doing her damnedest to convince herself that she wasn't lying. And failing. How was she supposed to know!? Caffeine was his dog! His impossible dog! She didn't know what he could do! Goddammit, Trudy! I never should have come here!

The pain in Stanley's eyes was the most honest feeling she'd ever seen from the man. An expression of heartbreaking worry that dug mercilessly at her guilt... and inflamed her anger. He cared more about his damn dog than he did about anyone else! It was a dog! A great dog, sure, but...

Instead of committing suicide by either confessing her sins or criticizing his affections, Eve went back to her work while doing her best to ignore Stanley's gaze. She unwrapped a wire from around the core, a wire made of bonded metal and touched by her soul. The bonded part was fine. It was her soul that needed adjustment.

She'd gotten glimpses of what she wanted it to do, but actually getting it to do that was the hard part. Her soul could do almost anything she wanted it to, from insulating against outside interference and power loss to increasing energy conductivity. Or both. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as pointing and saying, Do this or do that.

There was certainly a lot of intent involved in the process. It mattered what she wanted. It mattered a lot. But it was also more than that. If she was being honest, it felt like she needed... belief. If she didn't believe that her soul would do as she wanted, it wouldn't.

The whole thing reeked of faith, and she hated that. Faith was for morons that didn't want to think for themselves, and she'd had more than her share of that bullshit already. Never again!

She believed in herself and no one else! No one else deserved that kind of trust! Well, maybe Zeke. She believed in him. He was still a good kid. That cunt hadn't ruined him, and Eve only hoped there was a real hell so that bitch could scream for eternity! All while knowing she'd failed to destroy Zeke!

Eve pulled her thoughts back on track. She knew belief, and she believed in herself. She believed in her soul. She had no choice. Zeke needed her to believe, and so she did. As simple as that. Well, obviously, not that simple, but she demanded it to be so anyway. That was the whole point of belief.

She touched a finger against the wire and held back the sparks of her soul as she demanded it conform with what she wanted to be the truth. No, what she believed to be the truth. What she knew to be reality.

Then she let the spark go. The tiniest of sparks. Less than a tenth of a tenth, but plenty for what she needed.

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It zipped into the wire in an instant, a tremulous yet complex tapestry of power that encapsulated the entirety of the metal. Inside and out. Perfectly!

Eve tamped down her elation quickly. This was as it should be. As she knew it must be. Perfectly normal. Then she rewrapped the core with the newly infused wire and moved on to the next one. It was tedious work requiring high focus and attention, but it wasn't energy intensive. She almost managed to forget Stanley's presence.

At least until she felt his soul sight staring at her.

"What are you doing?" Stanley asked, this time with none of the hostility he'd had earlier. He sounded and felt... curious?

Eve didn't believe it. The bastard probably had this shit all figured out already and was getting ready to start mocking her about whatever mistake he'd spotted. As if she wanted his fucking advice! Or... did she? He knew more about souls than anyone else, aside from maybe the undead. It would be idiotic not to learn whatever she could when the stakes were life and death.

Despite his interruption, Eve successfully infused the last wire and started wrapping it back around the core before responding to his question. "It's to improve the..." Her voice stuttered when she looked up and saw the black pits that were his eyes, but she swallowed and forced herself to keep talking. "Efficiency."

It was almost completely dark in the room, but the voids where his eyes should be somehow managed to shine with an even deeper blackness. They looked nothing like the blazing eyes that still haunted her—virtually the opposite, in fact—but looking into that darkness felt eerily similar. Except the darkness wasn't absolute. There was a light in there—a spark of something—a gleaming and jagged line of blazing...

"Do you need more soul?" Stanley asked.

Eve blinked and tore her gaze away from his, her heartbeat thundering in her ears. That light. Was that it!? Was that the power he'd used before? The source? She wanted it. The things she could do with that kind of...

Then her brain caught up with what he'd said, and her heart pounded for an entirely different reason. "W-what!?"

"Your soul," Stanley said, still staring with those bottomless pits; only she realized he wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the wire-wrapped cores. "Are you running out?" His gaze moved to her, and she resisted the urge to squirm. "I can't really tell by looking at you... Is that why you came out here? Were you hoping to increase your soul attribute by staying close while I work on the wound?"

Eve couldn't breathe. He knew! He was just toying with her before he killed her! He...

"Never mind," Stanley said, looking away even as violet light swirled in to fill the void in his eyes. "I was only curious."

His soul wasn't angry... it was regretful? He'd felt her fear and... felt bad about it? Did he really not know what she'd done? Or was this all an elaborate ruse? Maybe he could project whatever he wanted from his soul? Could he do that? But why would he? Was he getting some sick satisfaction out of torturing her?

"I've done some experiments with Daryl," Stanley said, still not looking at her. "We found another method to improve people's soul attributes faster... but I'm told it's very unpleasant." He glanced at her. "If you're desperate..."

Eve swallowed and shook her head before she could find her voice. "I have... plenty of soul."

He only shrugged and didn't otherwise react to her statement. Instead, he closed his eyes and went back to working on his soul wound. Or so she assumed from what she could feel. Eve went back to work as well. She didn't want to think about her problems anymore, and the best way to do that was to think about something else with all her attention.

Still, when violet light lit up the room again, Eve couldn't help asking, "What's the method?"

Stanley was quiet for a time, then said, "I basically crush your soul with mine... I don't think you want to do it, and besides, it works a lot better on people with very low soul attributes. Like single-digit low. What's your soul up to now?"

Eve stiffened. She couldn't lie. He would know! And she couldn't tell him what it was up to because he might ask how she got her soul so much higher than anyone else...

"Geez. Forget it. What is wrong with you!? You're acting like you think I'm going to kill you!"

"I..." Eve grasped for words even as her throat closed up. "I... don't want to talk about it."

Stanley rolled his eyes with a muttered, "Whatever." He glanced again at her laser cannon. "Though I could have sworn you used to have way more soul in your equipment. Or do you have an army of spiders out there constantly hunting for you?"

"That would be great," Eve said, grateful for the change of topic even if it hadn't strayed very far from what she didn't want to talk about. "But my spiders aren't autonomous. Aside from that, I would need to use soul if I wanted any kind of range, and that would increase the risk of potentially losing the... soul."

"You can lose the soul you put in those!?" Stanley asked, horrified.

Eve blinked at the shock coming from him. "Yes? If something eats the spider or even just the piece with my soul infusing it... well, I lose it. It fucking..." She looked away. "It sucks."

"I bet," Stanley murmured, his soul echoing with remembered pain. "Is that why you don't have soul in your armor anymore?"

"Yeah..." Eve picked up her helmet and flipped it over to peer inside. "I'm working on something to project a shielding effect into the metal from deeper inside." She'd succeeded, partially. Though the strength of the effect was abysmal. Better control of her soul would improve things, but she was counting on a better offense adding up into a better defense for now.

It wasn't as bad if something took a bite out of her blood-bonded metal. Sure, she would lose the metal if it stayed in a monster's stomach too long, but that didn't hurt so much as set her back. The monsters were also far less likely to swallow her metal if it didn't have soul in it. They must be able to sense the soul somehow... and maybe even absorb it by eating it. She could test that theory with Stanley's help... if she was willing to lose a bit of soul. Which she wasn't.

"How much soul did you lose?" Stanley asked, as if reading her mind. He actually sounded concerned, and darkness flickered through his eyes as he looked at her. "Your soul looks fine... if not stronger than ever."

He had to know. How could he not? Though his bombarding soul actually felt better now than it had earlier. She was distracting him from his misery... with her own. Or was he actually interested in what she was doing? Was this why Trudy had sent her out here? Eve hadn’t planned for much else besides simply being here, but distracting him was probably better than letting him stew alone in the dark... Which meant that maybe she could help Stanley by distracting him while also getting his advice on her soul usage. A win-win for both of them?

Eve swallowed and held up the helmet while pointing out her shielding array. "What do you think of the soul I put right here? Does it look good, or is there a better way?"

Stanley's eyes flicked to black as the helmet floated free from her grip. He studied it up close, and Eve focused on her laser rather than risk looking into those dark voids again. She felt his gaze on her more than once, but still didn't look up. Not until he murmured, "That's so weird."

"What!?" Eve's heart sank as her head shot up and around. "Did I screw it up? What's wrong!?" Had she been doing it wrong all along? Or... Oh fuck! Can he see the soul I leeched from him!? She'd never even thought of that before and never noticed any differences. It all felt the same to her, but this was Stanley. She never should have let him look so closely...

"It's your soul," Stanley said while glancing back and forth between her and the helmet. "But it has a different feel to it."

She was fucked! Absolutely fucked! Eve opened her mouth to confess. He would probably kill her, but she could beg for Zeke's life. Stanley liked Zeke and wouldn't take it out on him. Would he!? Nate wouldn't be able to stop him! Caffeine was the only one who might be able to... and he was asleep!

Stanley continued before she could get the words out. "It's almost like I can feel..." He frowned, staring intently, his face nearly inside the helmet. "It feels like... protection? Whereas the rest of your soul is a jumble of..."

He looked up at her, the dark pits of his eyes feeling like black holes dragging her down to her death and the death of all she held dear.

Violet light bloomed from the void, and Stanley exclaimed, "God damn it, Eve! Just leave if you're that fucking scared of me! For fuck's sake!" He closed his eyes and turned away. Then he rubbed at his face before glancing sideways at her. "Is it the soul sight? I can't really look at these specks of your soul without it."

He didn't know... He hadn't seen anything... Still, Eve wanted to leave. She wanted to run screaming for her life! She never should have come out here. But she couldn't move. Her eyes burned, and she felt tears threatening to spill over as that moment of absolute terror drained away. I won't cry, damn it! I won't cry in front of him ever again! I won't fucking cry, period! Never again!

Eve squeezed her eyes shut and clung to the scraps of anger, anger at herself for her weakness. For her mistakes and failures. She held it tight even as it burned. She would not cry. She was stronger than that! She had to be stronger! So she poured that anger and determination into her soul. All of her soul. Not the tiny sparks that she infused into her equipment, but the entirety of her being. I am strong. I will stand. I will fight. I will not break!

When she opened her eyes, Stanley was watching her, and she met his gaze with all the strength of her soul. She might be afraid, but it would not control her. It would not break her.

"This is my house," Stanley said. "You can leave if you want, but don't expect me to go anywhere just cause you're mad about something."

Eve laughed. Once. And it came out treacherously close to a sob, but she laughed. Stanley might be an asshole and a lunatic, but he wasn't the monster she made him out to be. He wouldn't kill her. Well, not once Caffeine woke up... At the very least, he wouldn't kill Zeke. Not for her sins.

"I'm fine," Eve said, proud that her voice didn't crack. "And I'm not leaving." She cleared her throat. "What were you saying about my soul?"

Stanley eyed her suspiciously as his eyes turned black, then glanced between her and the helmet a few times. "How are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Your soul is different." He looked her up and down and even shot a glance at her wire-wrapped cores on the table. "Or, I should say, the emotions are different."

Eve stared at him in confusion. "So?"

"It's your soul. It should all match. Shouldn't it?" He frowned. "I know it did before..."

"What are you talking about?" Eve asked.

"How did you make some of your soul different?" He glanced at the helmet again. "And why use so little? Is that the trick?"

Still not sure where he was going with this, Eve explained her process, going into detail about how she'd realized that more soul didn't necessarily equate to more power—a temporary limitation, she was sure, and one based solely on the quality of her materials.

"You're a soul psionic," she finally said while trying not to think too closely about... other things. "Don't you do the same thing I'm doing? That's what makes you so much more powerful than everyone else... isn't it?" Was she on the wrong track?

Stanley shrugged. "I think so? I know I've used my soul to increase my power..." He stared at the helmet. "But I don't think I've ever used individual pieces like this."

Eve slowly closed her gaping mouth as a new realization dawned. Stanley might be an idiot. Well, not a total idiot, but he obviously wasn't the soul savant she'd blindly assumed him to be. Which, in hindsight, made total sense. They'd all assumed him to be the foremost authority on the soul simply because he was the first one to have the attribute unlocked... Though his starting at such a high number was definitely an abnormality.

Her understanding of his own lack of understanding helped to ease some of her fears. Maybe he was too dense to even notice what she'd done? Maybe she didn't even have to tell him the truth?

Trudy would hound her if she didn't, and she would be right to. Stanley had indeed done right by her and her brother. She was the one who fucked up, and she would make amends for it.

But after Caffeine woke up. There was no need to push her luck too far...

Despite Stanley's disappointing lack of impartable wisdom, he wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought. He merely had a different way of looking at the whole issue, and they talked into the night, discussing and experimenting with their respective souls. Stanley even tried to infuse a bit of his soul into her metal, with no luck. Though he claimed he'd almost managed the trick with his knife.

She could somewhat sense his soul, but it was a far cry from his own soul sight. Which meant she wasn't much help in either case. He turned out to be even more useful when she got back to work, with him not only watching closely but also adding live feedback. She only had to endure those midnight eyes during the process...

Caffeine slept through everything, his breathing sometimes the only sound in the otherwise silent room, and she felt the ache of Stanley's worry for the pug often. Fortunately, it wasn't the continuous onslaught it had been. She was helping him, even if only as a distraction, and he was helping her in turn.

Eve kept watch over her many camera feeds throughout the night. From the ones scattered around the clean zone as an early warning system to the cameras inside the base, including the one focused entirely on her brother once he finally went to sleep. She even checked in a few times on the stadium, though only when Stanley was distracted and she didn't have to worry about him getting a glimpse and flying off. Still no skeletons.

She finally finished a particularly difficult infusion on her armor shielding array—successfully for once—and looked up at Stanley with a wide grin. "I did it!"

He smiled back, though not quite as enthusiastically, and she realized she could see his face clearly. The sun was coming up... and Caffeine still slept.

Stanley followed her gaze, and his smile faded to a shadow of itself.

"He'll wake up soon," she said softly.

"I know," Stanley said, and this time he believed what he was saying. A little bit.